India proposes to recognise foreign medical degrees

Published: Friday, December 14, 2007, 22:04 [IST]

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New Delhi, Dec 14 (UNI) The government is considering a proposal to recognise medical degrees of developed countries, including the US and the UK, to encourage Indian doctors settled abroad to return here, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said today.

Dr Ramadoss has sought support of the Medical Council of India in recognising the degrees of countries like the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

Addressing the Indo-US Healthcare Summit here today, he said a lot of Indian doctors have studied abroad and now they wanted to come back, so the government is considering a proposal to help these doctors return.

Regarding whether the decision should follow these countries first recognising Indian degrees, the Health Minister said New Delhi could take the first step and then they might eventually reciprocate.

He said the government was also in the process of revising the medical education curriculum to meet the challenges of the 21st century, he informed and said that the new curriculum would be made more practical and suited to international norms. It is likely to have a component on emergency medicine, which was lacking at present.

He also said the government was in the process of bringing legislation to tackle public health emergencies like SARS, avian influenza, chikungunya and dengue and others. The proposed legislation would be supported by the Integrated disease surveillance with labs of international bio-safety standards to support diagnosis and IT system for data management.